Architectural and design aid

ABSTRACT

A COLLAPSIBLE, SIX-SIDED ARCHITECTURAL AND DESIGN AID MAY BE MANIPULATED TO EXHIBIT VARIOUS GEOMETRIC CONFIGURATIONS. WHEN THE DESIGN AID IS EXPANDED TO ASSUME THE GENERAL SHAPE OF A PARALLELLIPIPED, THE SIDES FORM CONSECUTIVELY CONNECTED AND RECTANGULAR FRON, FIRST SIDE, BACK AND SECOND SIDE SECTIONS AND TOP AND BOTTOM SECTIONS. EACH SECTION COMPRISES FIRST, SECOND, THIRD, AND FOURTH SUB-   SECTIONS CONSECUTIVELY CONNECTED TOGETHER AT THEIR SIDE EDGES BY PARALLEL MINOR SCORELINES. EACH SECTION IS HINGEDLY CONNECTED TO FOUR OUTER SECTIONS BY A MAJOR SCORLINE AT EACH SIDE.

ARCHITECTURAL AND DESIGN AID 7 Filed Aug. 12, 1970 3 Sheets-Shed 1 v [2/FIG. 2.v

I36 INVENTOR.

ARTHUR K. H/CK ATTORNEY Nov. 30, 1971 A. K. HICK 3,623,243

ARCHITECTURAL AND DESIGN AID Filed Aug. 12, 1970 3 Sheets-Sheet 8INVENTOR.

ARTHUR K. H/CK ATTORNEY Nov. 30, 1971 Filed Aug. 12, 1970 I A. K. HICK3,623,243

ARCHITECTURAL AND DESIGN AID 3 Sheets-Shoot 5 INVENTOR.

ARTHUR K. H/CK ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,623,243 ARCHITECTURAL ANDDESIGN AID Arthur K. Hick, Mill Valley, Calif., assignor of a fractionalpart interest to Frederic M. Jukich, Sausalito,

Calif.

Filed Aug. 12, 1970, Ser. No. 63,238 Int. Cl. A63h 33/04 US. CI. 35-72 3Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Modernarchitectural and design practices dictate the need for visual aids tosuggest unique shapes. For example, such aids may be utilized fordesigning buildings and household furnishings, such as lamps, chairs,mobiles and toys. Such design aids not only sugest esthetic features,but more importantly exhibit integrated constructions exhibiting highdegrees of structural integrity. A primary limitation of such designaids is their inability to suggest a wide variety of such constructions.

SUMMARY AND OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION An object of this invention is toprovide an economical and non-complex device which may be opened andmanipulated to assume a wide variety of shapes. Such device has a widevariety of uses, such as utilization as an aid for architectural andrelated design work to sugest the structural orientation of buildings,furniture, lamps, mobiles and like structures. The device may also beemployed as a toy or the like.

The device may be opened to assume the general shape of aparallelepiped, for example, with its sides forming consecutivelyconnected and rectangular front, first side, back and second sidesections and top and bottom sections connected to the other sections.First, second, third and fourth subsections are consecutively connectedtogether at their side edges by first, second, third and fourth parallelminor hinge means, respectively. An inner side edge of each of the foursub-sections is hingedly connected to an inner side edge of an adjacentsubsection of an adjacent section by first, second, third and fourthmajor hinge means. Each of the minor hinge means is normally disposed inco-linear relationship with a respective one of the major hinge meansand with respect to another minor hinge means when the parallelepipedshape is assumed by the device.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DMWINGS Other objects of this invention will becomeapparent from the following description and accompanying drawingswherein:

FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a device embodying this invention andopened to assume the general shape of a parallelepiped;

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of the FIG. 1 device;

FIG. 3 is an isometric view of the FIG. 1 device assuming another shape;

3,623,243. Patented Nov. 30, 1971 ICC? FIG. 4 is an isometric view ofthe FIG. 1 device assuming still another shape;

FIGS. 5 and 6 are front elevational views of the FIG. 1 device assumingstill other shapes;

FIG. 7 is a top plan view of the FIG. 1 device in its collapsed andflattened condition; and

FIG. 8 is a front elevational view of the collapsed device of FIG. 7.

FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate the device of this invention as it would appearin its opened condition to assume the general shape of a six-sidedparallelepiped. The device is shown in its collapsed condition in FIGS.7 and 8 to adapt it for shipping or storage purposes. The sides of theFIG. 1 parallelepiped or cube for consecutively connected, identical andrectangular (square) front 10, first side 10a, back 10b and second side10c sections and top 10d and bottom 10e sections connected to the othersections.

The front section, for example, comprises first, second, third andfourth sub-sections 11-14, respectively, consecutively connectedtogether at their side edges by first, second, third and fourth parallelminor hinge means or scorelines 1518, respectively. For example, thevarious hinge means may be formed by a flexible adhesive tape or thelike suitably secured to the sub-sections by a heatsensitive adhesive.

An inner side edge of each of the four sub-sections 11 14 is hingedlyconnected to an inner side edge of an adjacent sub-section of anadjacent section by first, second, third and fourth major hinge means orscorelines 19-22, respectively. It should be noted that each of theminor scorelines is disposed in co-linear relationship with respect toone of the major scorelines and with respect to another minor scoreline.For example, scoreline 15 is co-linear with respect to the majorscoreline connecting sub-sections 11a and 12d together and also theminor scoreline connecting subsections 11b and 14b together.

As shown, the remaining sub-sections of sections 10a- 10e are depictedby like numerals. However, such numerals are accompanied by an a forfirst side section 10a, a b for back section 10b, a c for second sidesection 10c, a d for top section 10d, and an e for bottom section 10e.

FIG. 3 illustrates a varied window-shaped geometric form of the deviceeffective by suitably manipulating the FIG. 1 shape. In particular,first side section 10a and second side section are collapsed onthemselves. For example, sub-sections 11a and 12a and sub-sections 13aand 14a of the first side section are superimposed. The intermediateportion of the design finds back section 10b and top section 10d alignedand stacked on aligned front section 10 and bottom section 102.

FIG. 4 illustrates a hexagon configuration formed by suitablymanipulating the device. In this form, each section 10-10e forms adiamond shape with the front, first side and top sections beingsuperimposed on the underlying back, second side and bottom sect-ions.

FIG. 5 is a front elevational view of a varied form of the deviceachieved by suitably manipulating the device as shown in FIG. 5. Inparticular, superimposed sub-sections 14 and are shifted rightwardly inFIG. 5 to form two pairs of back-to-back triangular sections spacedapart by the illustrated two back-to-back frustoconically shapedsections.

FIG. 6 illustrates a different form of the device which is a slightvariation of the FIG. 4 form. In particular, parallel sections 10a and10c are shifted in opposite directions. It should be further noted thatintermediate subsections 11d, 13d, 11 and 13 remain in parallelrelationship.

What is claimed is:

1. A collapsible, six-sided device opened to assume the general shape ofa parallelepiped, said sides normally forming consecutively connectedand rectangular front,

first side, back and second side sections and top and bottom sectionsconnected to said other sections, each section consecutively comprising:

first, second, third and fourth sub-sections consecutively connectedtogether at their side edges by first, second, third and fourth parallelminor hinge means, respectively, an inner side edge of each of said foursub-sections hingedly connected to an inner side edge of an adjacentsub-section of an adjacent section by first, second, third and fourthmajor hinge means, each of said minor hinge means being normallydisposed in co-linear relationship With respect to a respective one ofsaid major hinge means and with respect to another minor hinge meanswhen said design aid assumes said general shape of a parallelepiped. 2.The invention of claim 1 wherein each of said References Cited UNITEDSTATES PATENTS 1,997,022 4/1935 Stalker 3572 X 2,883,195 4/1959 Rogers273155 2,992,829 7/1961 Hopkins 3572 X HARLAND S. SKOGQUIST, PrimaryExaminer US. Cl. X.R. 16117; 273-155

